During this year’s I/O Google introduced an AI agent called Gemini Spark: “Your 24/7 personal AI agent”. After receiving a task, the assistant works autonomously in the background, even if your phone or laptop is turned off.
The Verge has tested Spark in advance and calls the agent “the most impressive and terrifying” artificial intelligence they’ve seen. In one of the tests, the writer asked Gemini to write a draft email to his wife, with a summary of what they spent on average on groceries per month in 2026. After that, Gemini succeeded in a short time:
- Understand who his wife is without the name being given.
- Find their budget spreadsheet in Drive, even though the document doesn’t have “budget” in the name.
- Find the wife’s email and her name, even though the name is not in the email address.
- Write a proper draft in Gmail.
- End the email with a personal greeting they only use for each other.
During the test, Google’s Josh Woodward showed off other things the Gemini Spark can do on its own when prompted, like coloring every appointment on Sundar Pichai’s calendar pink, writing a party invitation to a neighbor, and creating a to-do list for the kids at school.
In another of The Verge’s tests, Spark went through the inbox to suggest emails to unsubscribe from. The assistant also searched Docs for old tasks that still haven’t been completed. They asked Spark for an itinerary for a weekend trip to a city with the family. According to The Verge, Spark put together a “shockingly” detailed, useful, and family- and dog-friendly itinerary.
Google is careful to point out that Spark only works on behalf of the user. You can either watch while Spark works, or let it work in the background. Users get to choose which external apps to connect to Spark.
Turn messy email chains into a master plan. Gemini Spark can handle the heavy lifting for your next group getaway including logging receipts into a spreadsheet, and sending an email to the crew so everyone knows the plan.
Gemini Spark should be able to analyze one’s invoices to understand what the household needs in the future. For example, you can ask it to create recurring reminders in the calendar and continuously update a list in Keep with supplies that need to be purchased. In the long run, Spark should also be able to use computers on its own.
For all of this to work, of course, we need to be prepared to hand over a huge amount of potentially private data to an AI. Spark can be beta tested this summer by Americans of legal age who have a subscription to Google AI Ultra.
Maybe this can be an incredibly time-saving and practical help in everyday life and working life, but as we previously discussed: is it really that hard to do things yourself? At best, AI agents can help us with the boring stuff, so we have more time for what we actually do want do.